About myself

I am an experienced researcher of next-generation urban infrastructure systems in a changing climate. My particular interests lie in geospatial analytics, the water-energy-climate nexus, sustainable, extreme temperature events, urban planning and the sustainable transition of current infrastructure systems. I am an Associate Scientist at ZHAW at the School of Architecture, Design and Civil Engineering. My background is highly interdisciplinary and my research is bridging the fields of geospatial analytics, urban planning, economics, environmental sciences and engineering. My research is motivated by the challenge to transition our urban built urban environment and infrastructure systems into a sustainable future and to adapt and mitigate climate change. Before moving to ZHAW, I was a researcher at the Urban Energy Systems Laboratory at Empa (ETH-Domain). Before that, I was part of the Infrastructure Transition Research Consortium and was leading the development of a national energy demand simulation model for an integrated system-of-systems model (called NISMOD2) at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford. I received a PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (eawag) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). In my PhD thesis, I analysed the potential for a sustainability transition of decentralised wastewater treatment systems and the role of data-driven technologies for which I received one of the prestigious ETH medals. Prior to this, I was awarded an MSc in Geography with a specialization in Geographical Information Systems at the University of Zürich (UZH).



Publications



2023
Vulic N, Eggimann S., Sulzer M., Orehounig K. (2023): National building stock model for evaluating the impact of different retrofit measures. CISBAT - The built environment in transition, Forthcoming
Eggimann S., Vivian J., Fiorentini M. (2023): Heating and cooling European buildings with lakes? Europhysics News, 54, 3, 16–19. https://doi.org/10.1051/epn/2023301
Chaudry M., Jayasuriya L., Hall J.W., Jenkins H., Eyre N., Eggimann S. (2023): Simulating flexibility, variability and decentralisation with an integrated energy system model for Great Britain. Scientific Reports, 13, 4772. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31257-9
Eggimann S., Vivian J., Chen R., Orehounig K., Patt A., Fiorentini M. (2023): The potential of lake-source district heating and cooling for European buildings. Energy Conversion and Management, 283, 116914. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2023.116914
Eggimann S., Mutschler R., Orehounig K., Fiorentini M. (2023): Climate change shifts the trade-off between lower cooling and higher heating demand from daylight saving time in office buildings. Environmental Research Letters, 18, 024001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acb0e3
Rüdisüli M, Teske S.L., Sidler D., van den Heuvel D., Diamond L.W., Mutschler R., Orehounig K., Eggimann S. (2023): Potential of renewable surplus electricity for power-to-gas and geo-methanation in Switzerland. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 48, 14527–14542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.12.290

2022
Perera A.T.D., Khayatian F., Eggimann S., Orehounig K., Halgamuge S. (2022): Machine learning to quantify the propagation of climate-induced uncertainties in energy systems Applied Energy, 328, 120169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.120169
Orehounig K., Fierz L., Allan J., Eggimann S., Vulic N., Bojarski A. (2022): CESAR-P: A dynamic urban building energy simulation tool. Journal of Open Source Software, 7(78), 4261. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00855-2
Allan J., Eggimann S., Wagner M., Ho Y.N., Züger M., Schneider U., Orehounig K. (2022): Operational and embodied emissions associated with urban neighbourhood densification strategies. Energy and Buildings, 276, 112482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.112482
Eggimann S. (2022): The potential of implementing superblocks for multifunctional street use in cities Nature Sustainability, 5, 406–414. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00855-2
Eggimann S. (2022): Expanding urban green space with superblocks. Land Use Policy, 117, 106111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106111
Eggimann S., Vulic N., Rüdisüli M., Mutschler R, Orehounig K., Sulzer M. (2022): Bottom-up building stock clustering of Switzerland. Energy and Buildings, 111844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.111844
Rüdisüli M., Romano E., Eggimann S., Patel M.K. (2022): Greenhouse gas emissions in electricity: Assessing impacts of different decarbonization strategies. Energy Policy, 2022, 112794 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112794
Silva, R., Eggimann S., Fierz L., Orehounig K., Baldini L. (2022): Opportunities for passive cooling to mitigate the impact of climate change in Switzerland. Building and Environment, 208, 108574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108574

2021
Eggimann S., Lischer P., Bolliger J. (2021): Evaluating superblock design to enhance urban greening. Journal of Physics: Conference Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2042/1/012005
Eggimann S., Wagner, Ho Y.N., Züger M., Schneider U., Orehounig K. (2021): Geospatial simulation of sustainable urban densification potentials. Sustainable Cities and Society, 72, 103068. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.103068
Mutschler, R., Rüdisüli, M., Heer, p., Eggimann S. (2021): Benchmarking cooling and heating energy demands with respect to climate change, population growth and device uptake. Applied Energy, 288, 116636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116636

2020
Zorn C., Koks E., Eggimann S. (2020): Demand side management to improve electricity network resilience. ArXiv Pre-Print. http://arxiv.org/abs/2008.04954
Eggimann S., Wagner M., Chen T., Yoo N.H., Schneider U., Orehounig K. (2020): Sustainable urban densification potentials: a geospatial analysis of Swiss post-war neighbourhoods. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 588, 1.01 – 1.05. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/588/2/022040
Eggimann S., Usher W., Eyre N., Hall J.W. (2020): How weather affects energy demand variability in the transition towards sustainable heating. Energy, 195C, 116947. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.116947

2019
Moy de Vitry M., Schneider M.Y., Wani O., Manny L., Leitão J., Eggimann S. (2019): Smart urban water systems: What could possibly go wrong? Environmental Research Letters, 14(8), 081001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab3761
Moy de Vitry M., Schneider M.Y., Wani O., Manny L., Leitão J., Eggimann S. (2019): Eggimann S., (2020): A high-resolution spatio-temporal energy demand simulation to explore the potential of heating demand side management with largescale heat pump diffusion. Applied Energy, 236, 997-1010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.12.052

2018
Eggimann S., Truffer B., Feldmann U., Maurer M. (2018): Screening European market potentials for small modular wastewater treatment systems – an inroad to sustainability transitions in urban water management? Land Use Policy, 78, 711–725. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.07.031

2017
Eggimann S., Mutzner L., Wani O., Schneider M., Moy de Vitry M., Beutler P., Maurer M. (2017): The Potential of Knowing More: A Review of Data-Driven Urban Water Management. Land Use Policy, 51 (5), 2538–2553. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b04267

2016
Eggimann S., Truffer B., Maurer M. (2016): The cost of hybrid waste water systems: a systematic framework for specifying minimum cost-connection rates. Water Reserach, 103, 472–484. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2016.07.062
Eggimann S., Truffer B., Maurer M. (2016): Economies of density for on-site waste water treatment. Water Reserach, 101, 476–489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2016.06.011

2015
Eggimann S., Truffer B., Maurer M. (2015): To connect or not to connect? Modelling the optimal degree of centralisation for wastewater infrastructures. Water Reserach, 84, 218–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2015.07.004


Thesis
Eggimann S. (2016): The optimal degree of centralisation for wastewater infrastructures. A model-based geospatial economic analysis. Doctoral Thesis. ETH Zurich, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-010811248
Eggimann S. (2013): Potential for a sustainability transition of decentralised wastewater systems for Switzerland on the level of urban structural units. Master Thesis. University of Zürich, Switzerland. Link


Reports
Vulic N., Eggimann S., Orehounig K., Sulzer M. (2022): Erst sortieren, dann sanieren. Die Auswirkung verschiedener Sanierungsstrategien auf den Energieverbrauch von Schweizer Wohngebäuden Konferenz Kantonaler Energiefachstellen (EnFK) (Hrsg)
VSE, EBP, Empa (eds.) (2022): Energieversorgung der Schweiz bis 2050. Bern, Switzerland. Link
Eggimann S., Allan J., Wagner M., Ho Y.N., Züger M., Schneider U., Orehounig K. (2021): Urban densification and its impact on energy use in Swiss cities. Final Report. Bern, Switzerland. Link


Other contributions
Aqua & Gas (2023): Heizen und Kühlen mit Seewasser? Forthcoming. Link
Bulletin (2023): Stromsparen bei Eingpässen koordinieren. May 2023. Link
Verband Schweizerischer Elektrizitätsunternehmen (2023): Koordiniertes Energiesparen in Haushalten. 30.1.2023. Link
SpringerNature (2022): Transforming cities with superblocks. Link
Verband Schweizerischer Elektrizitätsunternehmen (2021): Wird Kühlen das neue Heizen? Bulletin, 30.08.2021. Link
N+L Inside (2021): «Grau zu Grün»: Analyse zum Transformationspotential des Strassenraums in der Stadt Zürich. Link
ETH Blog (2021): Keeping it cool in Switzerland: Keeping it cool in Switzerland: The critical impact of air-conditioning uptake. Link
Global Infrastructure Hub (2020): Re-thinking wastewater infrastructure in times of crisis and rapid urbanisation. Link

Research interests


Press

Below you find selected media coverage and outreach of my research.

Läbegi Stadt, Stadt Zeitung
Superblocks in Bern?
forthcoming, 08.2023
Radio SRF, Rendez-vous
Hitze: Schweiz «gefährlich unvorbereitet»
Bochsler Katharina, 11.08.2023
Radio SRF, Rendez-vous
Kühlen ist das neue Heizen
Bochsler Katharina, 09.08.2023
Julius Bär, Vision
Investing in the human side of real estate
John Franklin, 18.07.2023
News Plus: Der tägliche News-Podcast von SRF
Der «Superblock»: Die Lösung für lebenswerte Innenstädte?
Dominik Brand, 30.06.2023
anthropocenemagazine
How daylight saving time could help fight climate change
Sarah DeWeerdt, 28.03.2023
RTI (Television)
Ora legale e risparmio di energia
Telegiornale, 26.03.2023
Die Zeit
Und wieder 217 Tage lang Sommerzeitkater
Claudia Vallentin, 25.03.2023
Wirtschaftswoche
Nützt die Sommerzeit dem Klimaschutz?
Thomas Kuhn, 25. March 2023
The Guardian
Could putting the clock forward help tackle the climate crisis?
Kate Ravilious, 2. February 2023
Hochparterre
Corona als Verkehrskatalysator?
Gabriela Neuhaus, October 2022
Spektrum Magazin
Superblocks für lebenswertere Städte
Andreas Frey, 2.08.2022
2050
Blockbuster
Jessica Braun
Das Schindler Magazin
Superblocks: Barcelonas autofreie Kieze
Martin Hildebrandt, 14.011.2022
Topos Magazine
Superblocks in urban planning
2.08.2022
Garten + Landschaft
Superblocks in der Stadtplanung
Laura Puttkamer, 18.08.2022
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Klimaanlagen schaden dem Klima. Was sind Alternativen?
Ruth Fulterer, 20.07.2022
Baublatt
Verkehrsberuhigung mit Superblocks?
Gabriela Neuhaus, 25.08.2022
Basler Zeitung
In Wohnstrassen soll Tempo 10 gelten
Sebastian Schanzer, 7.07.2022
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Mein Block
Lukas Lorber, 11.05.2022
NZZ magazin
Der grüne Block
Andreas Frey, 16.04.2022
Espazium
Wie viel Energie benötigt die Verdichtungsformel
Benedikt Vogel, 19.04.2022
El Planeto Urbano
Superblocks y smart cities
Laura Marajofsky, 25.04.2022
NZZ
Importe machen den Schweizer Strom schmutzig
Jürg Meier, 12.02.2022
Inside Climate News
Barcelona’s Innovation
Katelyn Weisbrod, 26.03.2022
Landbote
Der vergessene Süperbloc
Till Hirsekorn, 24.03.2022

Grants and awards


  • SNSF SPARK Grant (100'000 CHF) Superblocks: automated identification and evaluation of urban greening potentials. Swiss National Science Foundation, 2021. Online information
  • ETH-Medal for an outstanding doctoral thesis. ETH Zürich, Zürich, 2019.
  • #1 Prize: Best Master thesis Swiss Society for Applied Geography (SGAG), Olten, 2014.

Contact

  • CONTACT INFO
  • Sven Eggimann
    ZHAW School of Architecture,
    Centre for Building Technologies and Processes
    Tössfeldstrasse 11
    8400 Winterthur
    Switzerland

    sven.eggimann@zhaw.ch